Last Coal Mine in Wales, UK.
N 51° 43.799 W 003° 33.181
30U E 461807 N 5731151
The Last Colliery. The end has finally come for Wales' last coal mine, thirteen years after its workforce rescued it from the pit closure programme. The final shifts came to the surface on 25 January 2008.
Waymark Code: WMETRG
Location: South Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/06/2012
Views: 7
Tower Colliery, Hirwaun, Rhondda, Wales.
"In 1864, the first drift named Tower was started on a common, named after the nearby Crawshay's Tower, a folly built in 1848.
British Coal closed Tower Colliery on 22nd April 1994 on the grounds that it would be uneconomic to continue production.
Two million pounds was raised by 239 miners (TEBO Tower Employees Buy-Out) who pledged £8,000 each from their redundancy payouts and a buy out group was formed and successfully bid for the ownership of the colliery.
When the miners marched back to the pit on January 2nd 1995 a balloon was inflated for each worker.
On January 3rd 1995 the Colliery re-opened under the ownership of the workforce buy out company - Goitre Tower Anthracite.
The pit thrived for over a decade until it became clear that the coal seams were becoming exhausted.
The miners who'd fought hard to keep the colliery open finally agreed to its closure - the final shifts on 25 January 2008 were marked by a day of celebrations." Source: (
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Miners at Wales' LAST deep mine have marked its closure with a celebratory march, similar to the parade staged when they bought the pit 13 years ago. source: (
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